Love the Girl
by paganpunk2
Summary: Katt asked Falco to save himself from the slums of Zoness, and he did. Four years later, can she forgive him for not coming back to save her, too? T for language.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Here is a little two-parter Katt and Falco piece that popped into my head. It bookends Starfox 64, with a slightly alternate post-war ending in chapter two. Chapter two will post in the next few weeks, as will chapter three of my new Sky Captain fic, 'Behind Enemy Lines.' In the meantime I hope you'll check out my new original fiction and travel writing on jleehazlett dot com.**

 **Happy reading!**

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The slums of Zoness always sweltered under the high sun of late summer. The reptilian members of the population rejoiced in the heat, but everyone with fur or feathers was driven to live as much in the cool of night as they could manage. Katt Monroe was no exception to this seasonal necessity, and had spent the majority of the previous evening away from the tiny gang-owned flat she called her own. Now she dozed fitfully, chasing the remnants of a dream and trying to ignore the half-shaded noon light that was turning the room into an oven. The dream had been something about Falco and kissing and issues, but it slipped between the fingers of her consciousness every time she tried to grab hold of it.

She gave up on getting any more sleep when the fan on the window sill started to whine. Kicking her legs free of her tangled sheets, she rolled out of bed and stumbled across the room. The fan was an old contraption, half junk, and it had recently developed the frightening habit of smoking if it was left running during the hottest hours of the day. Falco had promised to take a look at it weeks earlier, but every time he came over he never made it any further than the bed. That was as much her fault as his, as there was nothing they were so well matched in as their sexuality, but today Katt felt like blaming him entirely for the delay. "Stupid boy," she muttered, and yanked the fan's frayed electrical cord from the outlet.

The pads of her bare feet left wet marks on the worn linoleum as she made her way to the refrigerator. As soon as she opened the door the appliance began to chug sluggishly, struggling to keep up with her demand for cold milk and colder beer. She hadn't had any of the former since the first of the month, but there was one can of cheap lager left on the bottom shelf. It was Falco's, but after last night she didn't care if drinking it made him mad. The aluminum was cool enough against her paw to make her groan happily, and although it wasn't yet one o'clock she carried the can out into the hall with her.

Only the lowest of the building's front steps were exposed to the sunlight at this time of day. She curled up in her usual place at the top, cracked open her beer, and looked towards the children playing on the opposite side of the street. They were busy choosing up sides for a game of football, and she watched as they split themselves along racial lines. The reptilian children arrayed themselves in the glare of mid-day, stretching their arms towards the sky and buzzing with energy. In the shade slouched the mammalian and avian youths, their faces tired but eager as they kicked a ragged old ball back and forth.

There was not a single exception to this strict division between smooth skins and sweaty hides. To an outsider the game would have looked like the beginnings of a race war, but Katt knew better. In summer the reptilians took the hot side of the field in order to spare their warm-blooded opponents, who would quickly overheat if they were made to play in the sun. In the winter the concession was reversed, and frequent breaks were called so that the cold-blooded players could go inside to warm up. Racism was something only the well-off tourists who flocked to the luxury resorts on Zoness' other islands could afford to indulge in. Here, where every day was a struggle, people didn't judge their neighbors based on what planet they had come from.

It was for that reason that no one looked twice when she and Falco walked down the street holding hands. They both wore the bright orange and smoky gray of the Street Hot Rodders, and that was all the similarity that was required. Even if either of them had had living relatives, there would not likely have been any objections to their romance. Half the people Katt met on a day to day basis were of mixed background, and they were no worse off than those of 'purer' stock. All that mattered when it came to choosing a partner, she thought as she sipped her rapidly warming drink, was love.

The substance of the dream she had been chasing a short while earlier came back to her suddenly; love, and how her boyfriend hadn't been given enough of it as a child. His parents were as dead as hers, but at least when hers had been alive they had made her feel wanted. The same could not be said for Falco's mother, who had wandered back and forth between prostitution and petty theft in order to support her drug habit. Katt had known Letitia Lombardi, and while it had always seemed to her that the older female cared for her son she hadn't been good at expressing it. Lately Falco had started evincing the same sort of vague indifference that his mother had shown, and Katt didn't like it.

Maybe things would have been different if his father hadn't been gunned down in a drive-by before he was born. More than once Katt had lain awake and imagined how it would be to watch the man you loved be murdered as his baby quickened in your womb. What kind of fear must Letitia have felt, she wondered, when she'd heard that her newborn was male and seen that he looked just like his father? Perhaps the bereft mother had had a premonition that her offspring would end in the same way her husband had. Perhaps that was why she hadn't dared to get too close. Perhaps the pain had just been too much for her to bear.

Every time Katt played that mental game she gained a bit more sympathy for Letitia and a bit more fear for her boyfriend. His father had been a high-ranking member of the very gang that they were members of, after all, and with the way Falco's star was rising he would soon match him in importance. He would be a lucrative target when they inevitably went to war again with a rival organization, and then what? Falco was a survivor, but that didn't mean he was invincible.

He had seemed to think he was twelve hours earlier. Tensions had been building between all of the local gangs for weeks in anticipation of last night's important intra-island spaceship race, and when she and Falco had managed a one-two victory for the Hot Rodders he had been rightfully proud. He'd been so proud, in fact, that he hadn't bothered to hide his delight from their defeated opponents. Several of them had shot murderous glares in his direction, and Falco had replied with an arrogant smirk. If Katt hadn't succeeded in pulling him away things might have devolved into a fight – into the very war she feared, maybe – right then and there.

He'd been almost bubbly as he walked her home, reliving the race out loud and speculating about the weaknesses the other groups had shown. Her disbelief at his lack of diplomacy swelled as she listened to him go on and on. Finally, unable to remain silent lest she find herself standing in Letitia's shoes in a few years' time, she'd burst into a tirade about his foolish, testosterone-driven attitude towards life. Of all the things she had said during her frightened and angry lecture, only the last line stood out clearly in her mind now. "It's too late for me to save myself from loving you," she'd told him, her shoulders shaking with emotion, "but maybe it's not too late for me to save you from the end you're running towards."

When she sputtered to a stop all he'd done was stare at her. His face had been hard, but considering his new penchant for hiding his emotions that had come as no surprise. The streetlight above them had picked out a strange glimmer in the depths of his gaze, though, and it was that shine that had caught Katt's attention. She had spent hours of her life, days even, studying his eyes, but she had never seen a look quite like that one in them before.

Before she could ask about it he bent down and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. Then he gave her a wink that managed to be cocky despite the sadness lurking in the corners of his expression and turned his back on her. His name balanced on the end of her tongue as he walked away, but she didn't call after him. Only when he had vanished around the corner did she finally let it fall from her lips. "Falco…"

So what were they now? Had that soft kiss been his way of breaking up with her? He'd never taken advice well, but she was always able to get away with giving it to him anyway. Maybe she had pushed too far last night. Maybe, despite their long history, he had given up on her once he heard how she really felt. She had abused everything he cared about; his friends, his hobbies, the way he made money. For all that her attack had stemmed from love, she couldn't blame him for thinking she'd gone too far.

None of them could afford phones, so the only way she could find out their status before she saw him tonight at the Hot Rodders' hideout would be to go to the apartment he shared with his friend Luca, another of the gang's lower-echelon lieutenants. The prospect of walking six blocks in the withering tropical sun was not a pleasant one, however. Besides, if she went now and it was bad news she would be crushed. If she waited she would at least have a chance to indulge in a few daydreams first, daydreams in which Falco listened to her and they lived happily ever after. That was the better option by far, if only because it would delay any pain she might have coming.

The temperature had now mounted so high that even the reptilian children had stopped playing. They lay wherever they could find a bit of shade, panting alongside their furred and feathered fellows. The only motion in the world was the gentle shimmer of the air above the baking asphalt. It was for that reason that Katt jumped when a familiar figure stepped into view up the street and started in her direction.

She squinted through the glare, trying to make the person out. Part of her hoped that it was Falco coming to see her and explain his odd departure last night. Another part of her was determined to smack him for risking heat stroke. The shadow coming towards her was tall and skinny enough to be him, but as it drew closer she identified its true owner. "Rita?" she asked, her eyebrows rising as Luca's girlfriend collapsed on the stairs beside her. "Are you insane, girl? What are you doing out here?"

"Had to find you," the greyhound panted back. "Important. Shit…you got anything to drink?"

Katt handed over what was left of her beer. It had long ago gone warm, but Rita drained it without complaint. "Mm. That's better. Although," she frowned at the can, "ain't you a bit young to be drinking this early in the day?"

"…You're six months older than me, Ree, which means we're both four years short of legal. What does the time of day have to do with it?"

"Nothing, I guess. Anyway," her face became serious, "have you seen Falco?"

"Not since after the race. Why?"

Rita's forehead creased. "I thought you might know. Damn…"

"Know what?" A tendril of worry unfolded in Katt's stomach, and she latched onto the other girl's arm. "Rita…some of those guys last night, the guys from the other gangs, they looked really pissed with him. Did…has something happened?" A beat passed. "Is he okay?"

"I don't know. Only Luca told me…" Rita looked away. "Luca said he was arrested this morning."

" _Arrested?_ Why? What-"

"I don't know that, either," the dog cut her off. "All I know is that Falco called the hideout a couple of hours ago and said he got picked up and that he…he probably wouldn't be able to come back."

"…Not able to come back?" Katt wracked her brain for all of the crimes she was aware of her boyfriend ever having committed, but she could think of nothing that might land him in prison long term. Yes, he'd been in plenty of melees, and she suspected that he had killed more than one person in them, but he wasn't violent by nature. His reputation among the Hot Rodders had grown out of his performance as a loyal foot soldier for the gang and his talent for flying chop-shop ships fast and well. He despised stealing and drug dealing and pimping, which she had always assumed were preferences borne of his mother's habits. What, she fretted, could the police possibly have on him? "Oh, god, Fal…"

"There's something else," Rita said. There was a note of confusion underlining her voice that caused Katt to look up quickly. Rita had serious street smarts, and she was usually the first among their group of friends to figure things out when a puzzle crossed their path. For her to sound lost now, when no one seemed to know what was going on with Falco and their next move was consequently uncertain, made a shiver of fear run down Katt's spine.

"What is it?"

"Falco said…he told Luca he left you a message."

"A message?" She shook her head. "But I haven't heard from him. I haven't heard anything."

"No, I mean…well, shit, girl, maybe you'd better just come look, okay? I'll show you what I'm talking about."

Katt was clad only in the short-shorts and sports bra she'd worn to bed, but she followed Rita off the steps without another word. The hot pavement singed her bare feet every time she had to mince across an unshaded section of road, and she soon regretted not putting on shoes. She could deal with the pain later, though; right now her boyfriend – her best friend – was trying to tell her something.

So she persevered for four blocks until they stepped into a weedy parking lot that often played host to impromptu gang meet-ups. Around the corner, Katt knew, was the needle-strewn park where she and Falco had met before either could claim double digits in their age. Just past that was the bus stop where they'd shared their first kiss. A block further on sat the dingy diner they visited as a treat on birthdays and anniversaries. All of those landmarks had the same gray, grungy look as everything else on this decrepit island of poverty, except in her mind. Pictured in relation to Falco, their importance in her life rendered them as bright and fresh as new graffiti.

It was new graffiti that Rita had brought her to look at. The back wall of the grocery store that marked one side of the parking lot was constantly being tagged, but today was the first time Katt had ever seen it covered in one cohesive message. Someone had gone over all the old signs and slangs with a layer of white that transitioned to pink at its edges. Atop the blank, snowy plain were three words, each measuring two feet tall and picked out in blue and red. "…Love that girl," Katt read in a whisper.

"Katt…" Luca had appeared beside her, and his anxious gaze crawled over her face. "Do you know what this is about?"

"Yeah, what's it mean?" someone else called out. Katt realized with a shock that there were almost a dozen people in Hot Rodders' orange staring up at the message. She couldn't imagine them gathering here by happenstance alone, not in today's heat. Word must be spreading fast about Falco's arrest and the mysterious note he'd left behind. No matter how many others knew that they were reading a note from Falco to her, though, none of them would understand what it meant the way she did.

It _was_ a note from him to her, of that there could be no question. Her soft, calm, feminine shades focused the message that his colors, bold and vibrant and masculine, shouted out at the world. The scrawling script was his through and through. And above all there was that word, the one word she had so longed to hear him say; love. Love that girl. Love her. He, Falco, loved her, Katt, and this was the only way he'd been able to tell her.

It was too much. Katt buried her face in her hands and began to cry. "Oh, girl, don't do that!" Rita said, pulling her into a tight hug. "It'll be okay. The police don't have a thing on him! He'll be out soon. Won't he, Luca?"

"Well, that's…that's not what he said…"

" _Won't_ he, Luca?" Rita tried again, her tone threatening.

"Oh! Yeah. Yeah, of course he will. But, uh, Katt…look, if you know what this means, it might help. He said you'd know what it means. So…do you?"

She did. The message plus the fact of Falco's arrest meant that he had done what she'd wanted and gotten out while he still could. Handing himself in to the police – and that was what he'd done, she was certain – wasn't what she'd had in mind when she'd been yelling at him the night before, but in the end he was alive. He had given up his life, everything he had built and worked for, because he loved her.

And someday, when he'd done whatever society required of him to make up for the deeds that he must have confessed to, he would come back and claim her again. That couldn't be so very many years away, not when neither of them were yet seventeen. His youth was his key to success, the one thing that might allow him to enter adulthood with a clean – or at least, a permanently sealed – record. He wasn't a criminal, just a young victim of circumstance trying to claim a better place in the world for himself. Surely there was enough common sense and mercy in the justice system for him to be recognized as someone who could still be saved.

In the meantime his reputation at home would have to be maintained. Katt knew that Falco would never sell out his fellow Hot Rodders in exchange for a reduced sentence, but not everyone would trust him as far as she did. If word got out that he had surrendered himself in a bid to escape the slums there would those who wanted retribution. Thoughts of betrayal aside, his attempt to find a better life would seem a slight, an insult, a sign of too much braggadocio even for their machismo-charged society. The Hot Rodders had enough connections in the prisons of Zoness to make her boyfriend's life hell if they wanted to, and she couldn't let that happen. She was his only defense on the ground now, and she would not give up one iota of the respect he had sacrificed his blood, sweat, and tears to earn. The complex meaning of Falco's message would remain known only to her.

Katt looked Luca in the face and wiped her streaming eyes. "…No," she lied. "It's a complete mystery to me. I'm sorry."


	2. Chapter 2

_Four years later - Corneria_

Katt didn't know why she'd come tonight. Glittery galas were far from being her natural habitat, and the fact that this one had been thrown in order to celebrate the end of the war in which she had briefly fought wasn't much of a consolation. The dinner had been delicious, it was true, and watching Falco go up on stage to be praised alongside his team mates had sent a strange shiver down her spine. Now that the mingling period had begun, however, she felt out of place. But she couldn't convince herself to leave. Not yet; not so long as there was a chance that she might run into the man she'd come to see amongst this crowd of thousands.

"Hey there, kitty cat."

Her breath caught in her throat as the voice her ears had been straining for spoke behind her. It sounded different than what she remembered – its timbre was deeper now, and there was a note of control there that she'd never heard before – but it was undeniably Falco. What struck her the most about his greeting was the trace of nostalgia underlining it. A happy smile made the corners of her lips turn up. Despite the passive-aggressive snarking they'd exchanged during the battle for Zoness a few weeks earlier, he had missed her.

"Hey yourself," she answered when she finally turned to acknowledge him. Her eyes flicked down and then back up again, taking in the changes that four years of good food and hard training had wrought. Falco would never be anything other than rangy, but there were muscles now where she remembered only sinew and bone. A flutter ran through her stomach, which she chose to blame on the sparkling wine in her hand. "Been doing okay for yourself, I see."

The remark came out colder than she'd intended it to, and Falco's expression flickered. "Sure. And so have you."

"Mm…you think?" She nodded towards the gleaming medal that General Pepper had pinned onto his jacket a mere half hour ago. "Seems to me like you defense contractors are the ones getting all the love tonight."

"…'Defense contractors,'" Falco snorted. "Who taught you nasty language like that?"

"Guess I've picked up some class since I left the old neighborhood."

He stepped closer and lowered his voice. "Yeah…but what I can't seem to figure out is how you did that. Got out, I mean."

"You're not the only one who's capable of saving themselves, sugar." Her self-confident reply didn't belie the tangle of emotions she felt about her flight from Zoness. For a long time she had held on to her hope that he would come back and take her away from the harsh world they'd grown up on. As the months and years had passed without word, though, she'd learned to rely more and more on her own ambitions and abilities to reach her goals. When it had become apparent that Andross was going to use her home as a dumping ground for industrial waste, she'd fled under her own power. She neither needed nor wanted Falco to play the hero anymore; she had become her own savior.

A sad shadow darkened his eyes. It was so close a look to the one he'd given her beneath that old flickering streetlight that Katt experienced a moment of déjà vu. Suddenly they were teenagers again, and she had just finished tearing down everything he was in the name of love. She tried to fumble together an apology – as hurt as she was that he hadn't sent her so much as a letter since their last face-to-face meeting, she didn't want him to drive him away again – but he beat her to speech.

"Is that what you did? You…saved yourself?"

He wasn't talking about the slums, or the Hot Rodders, or even Andross anymore, and she knew it. Had she, he was asking, saved herself from her love for him, which she had once claimed was inescapable? Bitterness at being cast off warred with the passionate affection that still burned in her heart of hearts. "…From some things," she managed.

They stared at each other for a long moment. Then Falco drained his glass and set it down with a decisive _tink_ on the silver tray of a passing waiter. "Let's get out of here, huh? This isn't us."

"It isn't?" she replied innocently. Her fingers rose to trace the silver medallion on his chest. "I thought maybe you'd been gentrified enough by now to like these sorts of things."

"There you go again with the swearing," he whispered. His hand closed around her wrist, and he gently pushed her back a step. "But some things never change, kitten. You know that."

Katt opened her mouth to reply, but before she could get a word out Falco had half-turned to address someone else. She would have known who the new arrival was even if she hadn't seen him on stage a short while before. His face had been being splashed across every tabloid newspaper and TV news station for months running, after all. "Katt Monroe," Falco said, "meet Fox McCloud. Fox…this is Katt."

Fox raised his eyebrows significantly at Falco before he offered his hand to Katt. "Hi," he nodded as they shook. "Appreciated your help at Zoness. You're an even better pilot than Falco said you were."

"Oh?" Surprise overwhelmed her. "I'm shocked he's mentioned me at all."

"You…you are?" Fox glanced between her and Falco, clearly confused. "Uh…"

"We're gonna get out of here for a while," Falco said, breaking the short-lived but awkward silence. "Not really our scene, you know."

"…Right. Cool. Well, it was nice to meet you, Katt. I'm sure we'll see each other again sometime." Then, frowning as if he'd just witnessed something concerning, he melted back into the throng.

"Thanks for that," Falco bitched when the other man had gone. "Now I'm going to have to explain way more than I want to when I get home."

"At least he'll _get_ an explanation."

Falco blinked at her. "Think I can get one too, maybe?"

"What do you mean, can _you_ get one? If anyone here deserves an explanation it's me!"

Her volume had risen on the last syllable, and a few heads turned towards them. Katt would have sworn she could hear Falco grind his beak in annoyance. "Keep your voice down," he lectured. "Unless you're _trying_ to make a spectacle in front of a bunch of people who would love to label us as a couple of ill-mannered street kids?"

Her upset boiled over. Not for the first time she wondered if maybe she had misinterpreted his message all those years ago. Had he really left the slums because he wanted to make her happy, or had the ardent wish she'd expressed simply provided him with an excuse to run away? Tonight more than ever, as he'd walked about in a handsome tuxedo and preened on stage, it had seemed like the latter answer was the correct one. "Maybe you've forgotten, but that's what we are," she hissed. "You used to be proud of that fact."

"And you used to wish I was anything else."

She'd meant to storm away after leveling her accusation – leaving like this would hurt in the morning, but at the moment she didn't care – but his quiet remark stopped her cold. She hesitated, and he took advantage of her indecision. "Come on," he said, offering his hand. "Let's at least talk, okay? Away from here. Away from all of this."

Away. Away, the way she used to feel when they lay together in bed or raced one another high above the crumbling buildings that made up their map of the world. To get away from everything except for him had once been all she wanted from life. "…Okay."

The hall in which the banquet was being held sat on the far side of the bay from the city proper. The darkness masked the devastation on the distant shore, leaving only the black patches where power had yet to be restored as evidence of what had happened here a bare month before. Those empty grids reminded Katt that she wasn't the only one who had seen a place they knew well be destroyed by Andross. If Falco had any love for the planet he'd been shipped to after he'd turned himself in to the police, his pain must be double her own.

He stopped when they'd walked a short distance down the beach, then spoke without looking at her. "You're mad at me for something," he mused, "but I don't know what."

"Falco, I'm…" She screwed her eyes shut and groped for the root of her emotions. "You left me, you son of a bitch. You _left_ me."

Sand shifted as he spun to face her. "I…I did what you asked," he breathed. "You said you wanted me to get out, so I got out." His hands gripped her shoulders. "I was going to come back for you, kitten. I swear I was. But I wasn't allowed to leave Corneria until I finished at the Academy, and by then there was the war, and…and then after what happened to Zoness, I thought I wouldn't be able to find you. They took the refugees to so many different places. I wasn't sure where you might have ended up or if you'd even escaped at all. I was going to look, though. As soon as the war was over, I was going to find you. I just didn't get the chance."

"Why didn't you write?" she accused.

"I left you a message. Didn't Luca show it to you?"

"He did. I saw it. I understood it, or at least I thought I did. But four years, Fal…four years is a long time for three words to hold up."

"…I know. I thought about writing, but…it's not really my thing. Besides, it would have raised red flags in my file if they found out I was still in contact with anyone from the old neighborhood. I've had to stay on the straight and narrow, Katt, and it hasn't been easy, but I did it. I did it because you asked me to."

Katt arched a suspicious eyebrow. "They really wouldn't let you write to me?"

"I don't know. They never said I couldn't, but when they offered me the chance to join the military instead of going to jail they made it pretty clear that I wasn't going to be allowed to keep my old habits. Plus, if we'd been writing and you told me that something was going on – that things were bad with you or the gang – I don't know that I wouldn't have tried to come back and help. That would have ruined everything. Then I ended up getting into the Academy, and I was so busy…it's not that I didn't think about you. I thought about you all the time. But I couldn't do anything about it, at least not if I wanted to have a shot at finishing what I'd started."

Her upset was fading as Falco's answers sank in, but there was one charge left to lay at his door. "And what about everything I did for you? What about everything I went through while you were gone?"

His gaze narrowed. "What do you mean? Was there something besides Andross?"

"I mean the _gang_ , you idiot! I spent all that time thinking you were in jail, thinking that the Hot Rodders and our enemies could get to you through prison channels. I put my reputation on the line to defend yours so you wouldn't be in danger, and it was all for nothing!" How many hundreds of times had she fended off accusations, some veiled, some blatant, that Falco was incommunicado because he'd turned on his old crew? No one could find proof that he was behind bars, but no one could imagine any other outcome from his arrest, either. If he wasn't on Zoness he had to have been moved to another planet, and it had been the general consensus that the authorities would only have moved him if he'd told them something that would put his life at risk at home.

Katt had been steadfast in her belief that Falco would never turn traitor, but her friends had been less resilient to rumor. By the time Andross came along even Rita and Luca had distanced themselves from her. Katt had escaped their dying planet alone, an outcast in a stolen spaceship with nowhere to call home. "You could have at least told me that much, Falco. You could have at least told me that you weren't working off a sentence somewhere. I ended up with nobody and nothing because of your failure to communicate."

"But that's over now," Falco said forcefully. His hands hadn't left her shoulders, and now they slid up to cup her face. "I'm sorry it happened like that, but it's over. Look at yourself. Look at both of us. We're _out_. We're free. We're at an invite-only victory ball with some of the biggest names in the system, for god's sake."

She pulled away from him and crossed her arms, gripping her elbows tightly. "Yeah, well, like you said to Fox, this isn't our scene. I don't even know why I came. Or why I was invited, for that matter." She'd pitched in at Zoness and Macbeth, sure, but she'd hardly been front and center like the Starfox team had. Now that she stopped and thought about it, there was no reason for her to have been included on tonight's list of worthies.

Falco's expression grew clever. "You're welcome."

"… _You_ got me invited to this thing?"

"Yeah. General Pepper asked all four of us if there was anyone special we wanted to come, and I gave him your name." A beat passed. "I wanted to see you. When you popped up out of nowhere over Zoness, I…"

"You what?" Katt pressed when he trailed off.

Falco ran a hand over the top of his head and looked out to sea. "I was scared, all right?" he confessed finally. "I'd spent all that time wondering if you were okay, where you were, what you were doing, and then you just appeared in the middle of a fight. I know you're a hell of a pilot, kitten, but I'd always imagined candles lighting up our reunion, not enemy lasers. If something had happened to you at Zoness, or over Macbeth after that…I don't know, Katt. I don't know what I would have done. Then, before I could figure out how I felt about any of it, you took off. I wanted to follow you. I wanted to follow you, and if we hadn't been so close to Venom, so close to the end, I would have. I just couldn't leave the others. Not then."

Katt was silent for a long moment as she considered everything that had passed between them. The past was over, as Falco had said it was, and his explanations were acceptable enough to earn her forgiveness. "What about now?"

He glanced back at her. "Leave them?"

"Yes."

"…No." He shook his head. "No. For a little while maybe, sure, but not forever. I feel like…like I almost have a family here. Don't tell them I said that, but it's true. We've been through a lot of shit together lately, and we went through a lot of other shit before that. To be honest, I wouldn't have gotten through the Academy without their help. I know what you had to deal with while I was gone was hard, but believe me when I say that I wasn't exactly off on a vacation.

"It's got to be easier now, though," Falco went on. "Andross is dead. We'll rebuild Corneria. Zoness…well, who knows how reversible that will turn out to be. I'm not sure either of us really want to go back there anyway. But we have options now, Katt. You and I finally have the ability to decide how our lives will go. Don't you see?" He took up her hands and squeezed them. "We're not street kids anymore. We've both become something more than that. And now, together, we can do so much more than we ever even dreamed."

Katt remembered the conversations they used to have on the roof of her old apartment building. They would stare up at the stars and talk big about the future, making absurd predictions and dissolving into laughter. Neither of them had believed that any of their wild prophecies would come true then, but as she listened to Falco she realized that he was no longer joking. He had faith in her, faith in the two of them, and faith in what they could become.

It made her happy, but it didn't solve the basic problems of her existence. She was wearing a gown and satin heels, yes, but when those things came off she'd be curling up to sleep in the Cat's Paw. "Falco, I have nowhere to go while you're hanging out with your boys," she said. "Maybe you're something more than what we used to be, but I'm the same girl I always was. I don't have a fancy education and a state-of-the-art fighter. All I have is an old Hot Rodders' racer that I strapped some lasers onto. She does all right, but she's no Arwing."

"Do you want one?"

"…What?"

"An Arwing. Do you want one?"

Katt laughed at his audacity. "Even if you had several billion dollars, they don't exactly sell those on the open market."

"No, they don't. But they'd sell a fifth one to the Starfox team without batting an eye."

She stilled. Was he suggesting what she thought he was suggesting? "Don't you think you should check with Fox before you go offering me a spot on his team?"

"He told me to ask you, if I wanted to."

"Why would he do that? He doesn't even know me."

"I've told him enough about you that he feels he can trust you. And he's seen you fly." A beat passed. "C'mon, kitten. It'll be fun. Like old times, only better."

Saying yes would put a roof over her head, and she'd be with Falco besides. But Katt wasn't sure she wanted to tie herself down again so soon. It was one thing to link back up with Falco; it was something else entirely to dedicate herself to a new group of people – a new gang, in essence, albeit a small one – whom she didn't know. She took her hands back. "I need to think about it."

"What's there to think about? It's a good job with good perks, and you'd be doing it with good people. And me," he added with a cocky grin.

"I know. And I want all those things, Fal. I'm beyond flattered that Fox is willing to have me on the team, but I don't know if that's the right place for me right now. Don't take that the wrong way," she said quickly as Falco's face fell. "It's not that I don't want to be with you. What I told you that last night at home is still true; I can't save myself from loving you. I've saved myself from a lot of other things since you left, but not from that. Never from that.

"But I don't want to say yes now and then look back down the road and wish I hadn't. I don't want to wake up in six months and wish I'd taken some time to go solo instead. I don't want to feel like I have to take back my word in order to be happy. That would hurt me, and them, and you, and that's not my goal."

"Okay," Falco said slowly. "So you need time. Fine. But that doesn't mean you have to sleep in your ship while you think. Fox will understand that you aren't ready to make a decision. He's, ah…he's good at giving people the space they need. And he won't begrudge you a bed and food while you figure things out. Hell, he'd probably order you an Arwing as a thanks for your help even if you decided not to join. He's like that. Generous. Too generous, sometimes; I really don't know how he'd balance the books if Peppy and I didn't quash some of his more expensive gestures. Anyway…just come stay with us for a little while. Alright?"

"It would be nice to actually catch up," Katt allowed. They'd missed so much of each other's lives that it was impossible to share the full details in one night. And who knew? Maybe once she got to know the others she'd decide that taking a spot on the team really was what she wanted to do. If nothing else this would give her an opportunity to get her feet back under her and rekindle things with the man at her side. For now that was enough. "Okay, sugar. You win."

"Good." Falco offered her his arm. "Want to go back inside on the arm of a hero?"

"Will the paparazzi take pictures of me?" she joked as she slid her hand into the warm crook of his elbow. "I only run with guys who attract photographers."

"Oh, they'll take pictures. Don't worry about that. But if they get annoying, just say so. I'll punch them out for you."

Katt sidled closer so that their hips brushed as they walked. This was what she had missed; the way their bodies fit together, their shared heat in the cool breeze of night, and above all this playful banter that was the best indicator of how tightly their souls were intertwined. "Couldn't we punch them out together?" she purred. "It'd be more fun that way."

Falco shot her an approving look, and Katt felt the muscles beneath her fingers twitch. "That's my kitten," he murmured softly. "Ready to scratch at a moment's notice. I always liked that about you."

"Liar," she accused. "You always loved that about me. There's no like involved."

Unspoken sentiment sparkled deep in Falco's gaze. "Maybe." It was all he said, but Katt understood.

* * *

 **Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this little story. If you did, or if you like other pieces of mine across the several fandoms I've written in, I hope you'll consider voting for me in the 2016 Fanatic Fanfics Multi-Fandom Awards. To do so, just visit awards dot fanaticfanfics dot com. Just search for paganpunk2 to see the categories I've been nominated in. Voting runs from April 11 2016 to May 2 2016.**

 **Also, you can check out my original (non fan-fiction) fiction as well as my travel writing by visiting www dot jleehazlett dot com. All of my stories are available for free for PDF download, so you can take them with you wherever you go. If you stop by, I hope you'll drop me a line and let me know what you think.**

 **As always, happy reading!**


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